Chapter 24
It was nine in the morning.
Kathy, Joey, Lenny, and Sammy sat on the couch bounded by duct tape.
Jesse and Frankie drank coffee and ate scrambled eggs and bacon in the kitchen – thanks to Rose.
Rose walked over to the stove.
She prepared four dishes of scrambled eggs and bacon.
She grabbed the dishes.
She walked the dishes into the living room and over to the couch. She placed the dishes on the floor.
She removed a small pocket knife from her pocket and opened it up. She sliced away the duct tape from their wrists.
“Are you going to kill us?” Lenny asked Rose.
Rose looked into their desperate eyes and kept her mouth shut.
Kathy looked mad at Joey. “Blabbermouth here just increased those odds by calling that detective,” she said.
Joey felt guilty.
Rose avoided eye contact while she handed them each a plate of breakfast.
Kathy looked at Rose’s stomach. “You’re pregnant. Aren’t you?” she asked Rose.
Rose cracked a little proud smile. “Yes.”
“Do you think honestly think Jesse is going to keep you be around much longer after this job? I saw how he treats you,” Kathy said.
“He doesn’t look to be the fatherly type,” Joey added.
Rose ignored them and walked back into the kitchen.
Joey, Kathy, Lenny, and Sammy ate their breakfast.
Angie parked her rental car in front of that old man’s house. She dipped her coffee while she watched Sammy’s house.
The old man peeked out his living room window. He smiled when he was Angie’s car. He had some entrainment and was curious as to which neighbor was in trouble.
Back in Sammy’s house, breakfast was finished, and Jesse’s got antsy to move out.
“Let’s get ready, folks,” Jesse told Frankie and Rose.
Rose walked out of the living room and down the hallway.
She went to another bedroom where Sammy used it as a computer and playroom.
She opened up a Word file on Sammy’s Dell computer. She quickly typed the robbery note and printed it out.
Jesse marched Sammy into the room.
“Grab that paper and put in your pocket,” Jesse ordered Sammy.
Sammy walked over to the printer and looked at the paper.
He read it.
He put it down and hesitated and that pissed Jesse off.
Jesse smacked the back of Sammy’s head. “Fold the fucking paper and put it in your pocket!” Jesse yelled then hit Sammy’s head a couple more times.
Sammy folded the robbery note and shoved it in his pocket.
Jesse grabbed Sammy’s arm and walked him out of his room.
Jesse walked him into the living room where everybody waited.
“I want Rose with Sammy and let me see,” he said while he looked at Joey and Lenny. “What the fuck. Have Sammy, Lenny, and Joey all in Sammy’s car. Rose will crouch down in the back seat. Frankie and I will take Kathy with us,” Jesse said.
Jesse reached in his pocket and threw Frankie, Sammy’s cell phone and Rose, Lenny’s cell phone.
He shoved Joey’s iPhone in his back pocket.
He walked up to Joey, Lenny, and Sammy. “If you three don’t cooperate, the police will find Kathy’s dead body in your apartment, Sammy, with pot added for extra charges,” Jesse threatened.
Joey looked at Kathy’s frightened eyes. He wanted to jump on Jesse at this moment but knew he’s against the odds.
Rose looked worried while she grabbed the paper bag out of the duffel bag by the dining room table. She reached back in the duffel bag and removed a brunette wig. She placed the wig on her head.
Jesse noticed and walked over to her. He rubbed her tummy. “Listen, I’ve been doing some thinking, and this will be our last job. We’ll head straight to Mexico, get married, and raise our child. I’ll get a job as a mechanic. I’m sorry I got mad at you when they escaped. I was wrong,” he told her.
He kissed Rose on her lips then gave her tummy a quick kiss.
Rose’s heart melted and any doubts she had with Jesse been just erased.
Kathy and Joey rolled their eyes, as they knew Jesse was not honest.
Frankie had a smirk on his face, as he knew Jesse was just saying that so Rose would complete this robbery.
Rose walked over and escorted Sammy, Lenny, and Joey to the front door.
Jesse and Frankie escorted Kathy to the kitchen and exited through the door and into the garage.
In Angie’s rental car, she sipped coffee while she watched Sammy’s house.
The old man still peeked out his living room curtains.
Angie almost dropped her coffee in her lap when she saw Sammy, Lenny, Joey, and Rose walk out of Sammy’s front door. She watched while they walked to Sammy’s Insight.
Sammy got behind the wheel, Lenny in the passenger seat, and Rose and Joey got in the back.
Sammy’s car backed down the driveway and onto the street. It waited.
Inside Jesse’s garage, Jesse duct-taped Kathy’s wrists and ankles with duct tape. He placed a piece across her mouth. He grabbed by her arm and opened his driver’s door. He pushed the seat forward and shoved Kathy in the back seat.
He got in the back with her.
Sammy’s garage door opened and Jesse’s GTO backed out.
“Bingo,” Angie said while she watched Jesse’s GTO back down the driveway and into the street.
Jesse’s GTO drove off down the street. Sammy’s Insight followed.
Angie quickly called Detective Greer from her cell phone.
“Detective Greer, I have some movement. A silver Honda Insight and an old sixties GTO just left Sammy Goddard’s house,” Angie told him.
“Okay, let me know when it looks like something’s going down,” Detective Greer replied.
“I’ll call as soon as I see them pull into a bank,” she said.
“Great,” Detective Greer responded.
Angie placed her cell phone down in her lap.
She started up her car and drove off.
She followed Sammy’s Insight keeping a safe distance.
Angie followed Sammy’s Insight, and he followed Jesse’s GTO. Jesse used his GPS to find a bank with an exit near Interstate I-10.
They followed the GPS directions, and it drove them straight to a Wells Fargo bank on Central Avenue just off Broadway. That was a great location, as it would take them to Exit 153 where they could head south to Mexico.
Just before they turned into the Wells Fargo lot, Frankie drove the GTO in the left lane. He got even with Sammy’s Insight.
Kathy looked up and watched Jesse while he snapped a picture of Sammy’s Insight. She got pissed.
Frankie drove the GTO past Sammy’s Insight and straight down the street.
Jesse called Lenny’s cell phone.
“Hey, baby,” Rose answered.
“Call me as soon as you complete the job. Then we’ll meet on I-10,” Jesse told her.
“Okay,” she replied, and Jesse disconnected the call.
Angie’s rental car followed Sammy’s Insight and watched as it turned into the Wells Fargo bank lot.
Rose lay on her side and put her head in Joey’s lap while Sammy drove to the far lane of the drive-thru.
“I bet you dreamt of me putting my head down here,” she told Joey.
Joey ignored her comment and looked away. He hoped he wouldn’t embarrass himself.
Angie quickly moved over into the left lane and raced across the other lanes and drove into a strip mall parking lot.
She stopped and immediately called Greer back on her cell phone.
“Hey, Angie, got something?” he answered.
“They pulled into a Wells Fargo bank on South Central Avenue,” she told him.
“I’ll have some units head that way,” he responded.
“Tell them to hurry!” she said.
Angie found an empty parking spot that gave her a good view of the bank.
She parked her car and watched the bank. She saw Sammy’s Insight, and it was in the outside lane. He was behind three other cars.
Inside Sammy’s Insight, Joey looked down at Rose. “I can’t believe you’re falling for Jesse’s bullshit,” he told her.
“What do you mean?” she asked while she looked at the back of the passenger seat.
“Do you think he’s going to keep you after we do this job for him?” Joey said.
“He’s right,” Lenny added.
One car finished their business and left. Sammy moved his Insight up when the car in front of him moved to the machine.
“Jesse would never hurt me. I’m pregnant with his child,” Rose replied after some time of silence.
The car ahead of Sammy finished their business and drove away. Sammy was next. He drove his car to the machine.
He looked at Lenny.
“I can’t go through with this,” Sammy said.
“You better,” Rose threatened.
“I can’t!” Sammy cried out.
Rose immediately called Joey’s iPhone.
“You done already?” Jesse asked.
“No. Sammy’s getting cold feet,” Rose told Jesse.
“Hold on,” he replied.
From Lenny’s cell phone, Kathy screamed as Jesse slapped her face hard. That pissed Joey off.
“May I help you, sir?” the teller asked from the loudspeaker.
“Ahh,” Sammy stuttered.
Rose smacked Joey’s leg and motioned for him to get Sammy to complete his mission. The car behind Sammy blew his horn as the driver was impatient.
Sammy rolled down his window, reached out, and grabbed the carrier tube.
He opened it up and placed the robbery note inside the tube.
He put it back into the machine and pressed the “Send” button.
Sammy looked scared to death while the tube was whisked away.
Lenny looked at him. “Don’t piss your pants,” he said.
“I’m too scared for that,” Sammy replied while he glanced over at the teller’s window without thinking.
Inside the bank, Nancy, the teller, grabbed Sammy’s carrier tube, opened it up and removed the note.
“This is a robbery. My two buddies and I want forty thousand dollars in bundles of Ben Franklin’s. Don’t even think about an alarm or those fucking dye packs. We have a friend in the bank at this moment, and I’ll text message her on the results. If you fuck with us, she’ll start shooting, and she’s itching to kill someone,” the robbery note stated.
Nancy’s eyes welled up, as she didn’t want to die. She looked at the customers and saw four women in line. Which one was the fourth robber? She thought.
She immediately ran over to the manager’s office – Bob Kendall.
“Bob, we being robbed from the drive-thru,” she told him then handed him the note.
He read it. He jumped up from his desk, and they both rushed over to the safe.
Jesse’s GTO waited in a convenience store parking lot just off Broadway Road.
Inside his car, Jesse stroked Kathy’s hair.
“You’re sexy. Why don’t we become an item?” he asked while he stroked her butt cheeks.
She cringed and wanted to barf with the feel of his hand on her rump.
In her rental car, Angie talked on her cell phone. “Where are your guys?” she asked. “I think the robbery’s going down now,” she said.
“On our way,” Greer responded.
“Hope they get here soon,” she said then watched the bank.
Inside Sammy’s Insight, he opened up the carrier tube with two bundles of Ben Franklin’s. He dumped them in his lap.
Another tube swooshed back to the machine. Sammy reached out, removed the tube from the machine, and emptied the two more bundles of one hundred dollar bills into his lap. He put the two tubes on top of the machine.
“That’s all of it,” the teller said from the loudspeaker.
Sammy drove his car away from the drive-thru and through the parking lot.
He pulled out on South Central Avenue and turned right.
He drove down the street and headed towards Broadway Road.
In her rental car, Angie talked into her cell phone.
“They finished the job. They’re heading on South Central Avenue. I’m going to follow them,” she said into her cell phone.
“Advise me where they’re going, and I’ll tell the units that are on their way,” Greer replied from her cell phone.
Angie backed out of the parking space and raced through the lot.
She pulled out onto South Central Avenue and raced after Sammy’s Insight.
Sammy’s Insight turned right onto West Broadway Road. Angie followed him.
“He’s heading down West Broadway,” she told Greer from her cell phone.
“Got it. I’m on my way and will be there soon,” Greer responded.
A police car drove down a nearby street. It slowed down because of an accident in the intersection up ahead.
The police car slowly drove around the accident, and then raced down the street.
Jesse’s GTO sat parked in the convenience store parking lot. Joey’s iPhone rang. He answered it. “Finished?” he asked.
“Yes. We’re heading down Broadway now,” Rose replied from the cell phone.
“Good. We’ll meet on south I-10,” he told her.
Sammy’s Insight drove down Broadway road and passed by the convenience store where Jesse’s GTO was parked.
Frankie drove the GTO out of the convenience store and turned onto Broadway Road.
He drove after Sammy’s Corolla.